How to Choose WiFi Repeater Supplier?

Price, compatibility, or ease of configuration are some of the aspects to consider when choosing a suitable WiFi repeater

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Raising your mobile as high as possible or moving to a corner of the room to add a WiFi line and speed up the connection are experiences that are as common as they are annoying. And they denote an obvious problem: the internet signal does not reach every corner of the home or business as well as it should. So how do you fix this? In many cases, it is enough to install a WiFi repeater.

The repeater is a device that plugs into an electrical socket and picks up all the signals from our WiFi network that it detects and then sends them out again. Or, as the name suggests, repeating them.

Sometimes the router is located at one end of the home or office. For this reason, it is not uncommon for people at the other end to experience signal problems. The signal is weak and is not sufficient to connect to the internet smoothly.

But if a WiFi repeater is placed in the middle of the road, it will give the signal a boost and it will travel stronger, thus eliminating the connection problems.

An inexpensive and easy-to-install solution, as all you need is a socket to plug the device into to increase WiFi coverage. Many repeaters have an app that makes them even simpler to set up, making them plug-and-play. And because they have been on the market for many years, they are already a proven technology that can be found and purchased at very affordable prices.

How can WiFi obstacles be overcome?

As a general rule, WiFi signal range data published by manufacturers refer to measurements under optimal conditions of temperature, humidity, and in open spaces. But the reality is different. The routers are installed in homes or offices, where there are tables, chairs, shelves, furniture, doors, rooms…

As it passes through these obstacles, the signal loses strength, speed, and range. In addition, during its trajectory, it creates refractions or bounces, which generate interference and degrade the efficiency and quality of the WiFi.

Choosing a WiFi repeater does not directly solve these problems. How? By adding a point where the WiFi signal is repeated and amplified so that it can reach further and serve a greater number of devices that would otherwise not be connected.

How do you know if you need to install a WiFi repeater?

Constantly facing connection problems is one of the most obvious signs that you might want to choose a WiFi repeater. However, there are many applications designed to accurately measure the speed and range of the network and provide reliable data on its performance.

For range testing, there are several mobile apps, such as Signal Strength, or more comprehensive programs, such as Acrylic Wi-Fi Analyzer. A powerful tool that allows users to observe how the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) graph fluctuates as they move around the installation. The idea is that, regardless of location, this value should not fall below -75. When the RSSI is between -75 and -100, likely, the connection is not good and action needs to be taken.

To analyze the speed, you can use a multitude of online tests such as Speedtest, often created by the various internet providers. An extremely quick and easy method with which you can find out the upload speed, download speed, and other factors such as latency.

It is always advisable to measure this data from different devices and compare the results, including mobile phones and computers, as their WiFi hardware and antennas are different. If both have a good connection, likely, future devices will not face problems either.

Where the RSSI is lower than -75, it may be advisable to install a WiFi repeater, to help the signal reach all corners. Although for more resource-intensive tasks, such as real-time online gaming, this may not be sufficient, it will allow for smooth surfing and social networking.

How to choose a WiFi repeater?

Several aspects should be taken into account when choosing a WiFi repeater to choose the right model.

Compatibility is undoubtedly one of the most critical issues. Typically, the cheapest repeaters only support the 2.4 GHz frequency band. If the WiFi works on 5 GHz or 6 GHz, it is essential to make sure that you choose a WiFi repeater that works on these bands. It is also vital to check its range, to verify that the device will be sufficient to cover the desired area and eliminate dead zones.

Additional features should also be considered. Some users have specific needs and should look for a repeater that meets those needs. For example, a dual-band repeater or an Ethernet port that enables a wired connection.

Other factors are less technological, but just as important when choosing a WiFi repeater, such as price, design, reviews, and location.

When it comes to price, it should not be forgotten that cheap can be expensive. While there are options for all budgets, it is crucial to make sure that the cheapest ones meet basic needs and do not sacrifice quality. Aesthetics can also play an important role in deciding which model to choose.

On the other hand, researching the opinions of people who have already purchased that particular repeater is the most reliable way to find out if it meets your expectations and solves your signal problems. And, once you have purchased it, you need to get the location where you install it right. Not only to get the most out of its capabilities but also to make sure you have a place to plug it in. These devices are wide and, if plugged into a power strip or a burglar, they could clash with other devices.

What about security?

When a user decides to choose a WiFi repeater, security may be one of his main concerns. Per se, these solutions do not pose any threat to the network, as the security level is not altered and the key is not changed.

However, it is important to keep a couple of things in mind. Repeaters allow the signal to reach further. As a result, the level of WiFi exposure increases considerably. The network can be accessed from a greater distance, making it easier for intruders to enter or for attacks to be carried out from further away.

In addition, if the repeater allows connection via network cable or USB, extreme caution should be taken. Especially when it is installed in a public and unattended place. Anyone could connect to it to obtain configuration information or even configure it in an insecure manner. For this reason, it is essential to change passwords and place them in areas that are out of sight and not easily accessible.

With all this in mind, choosing a WiFi repeater and taking advantage of its potential will be a much simpler task.

For more information, please visit WiFi Repeater Supplier.

Extenders are a cheap, easy solution to a common problem, but they’re rarely the most optimal one. Before buying a Wi-Fi extender, consider replacing a router that’s more than a few years old with a newer, faster model or going with mesh networking. If you already have a good Wi-Fi 6 router, make sure you’ve positioned it as high up and as close to the center of your home as possible. Plug computers, streaming devices, game consoles, and anything else you can into the router (or, if you need more ports, a network switch) via Ethernet, to reduce the number of devices competing for a wireless connection.

If you’ve done all of that and still have a trouble spot, a wireless extender could help. Cost is key, though: Good mesh Wi-Fi networks start at just above $120, and they offer more features, greater range, better roaming between access points, and generally higher performance. The cost of replacing an older router and adding a Wi-Fi extender is high enough that one of our mesh picks would be a much better choice.

One final warning: Avoid extenders that don’t use 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) or 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E). Old, 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) extenders are cheaper, but when such extenders are running, they significantly decrease the speed of all devices on your Wi-Fi. In addition, for devices connected by Wi-Fi to the extender, such models provide less than half of the base router’s speed. None of our picks are 802.11n extenders.

In a 2,300-square-foot, two-story suburban home, we found a spot that had an iffy connection to a standalone Wi-Fi 6E router one floor up and across the home. To get to that location, the Wi-Fi signal had to go through several interior walls, ending in a room surrounded by masonry walls, which can absorb radio signals and interfere with Wi-Fi.

For our tests, we wirelessly connected each extender to an Asus RT-AXE tri-band router. We placed each extender in the living room, on the main floor of our test home. That was about 20 to 25 feet horizontally from the base router, through at least two interior walls, but well within the “bubble” of the Wi-Fi signal from the Asus router. (Despite their name, signal boosters can’t extend the signal too far beyond where the router’s original signal gives out.)

In the rest of the house, our test Dell Latitude laptop was able to connect to the router via Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, but its signals were stretched a little thin in our test space. In fact, the laptop lost 6E signal in the test space, but it connected to the router just fine in the master bedroom right outside the door.

Before testing any extenders, we ran baseline tests using only the Asus router. Then, as we tested each extender, we subtracted the value of our baseline test. This approach allows us to directly show you how much each extender improved our test network’s performance from what we started with.

Our test involved downloading a large file. We wanted to see an overall throughput of 100 megabits per second or better, to simulate the experience of an impatient person waiting for a device to complete an update. When we ran the test without an extender, the laptop managed only 11 megabits per second (Mbps) on Wi-Fi 6 and zero Mbps on Wi-Fi 6E.

Top pick

This is a good extender for anyone who wants to boost a network, add an Ethernet jack to another room wirelessly, or install an access point in a prewired home.

TP-Link’s RE315 isn’t the fastest Wi-Fi extender on paper, but in our tests it improved performance and connection quality immensely compared with the Asus RT-AXE router alone. It is also compact, plugs directly into a power outlet, and has a 100 Mbps wired Ethernet port for connecting nearby devices.

It’s inexpensive. The TP-Link RE315 has been our extender pick for over a year and a half, and in that time the price has hovered between $30 and $40. That’s significantly less than the price of most of the Wi-Fi extenders we’ve tested in the past two years; those can cost as much as $200.

It improves Wi-Fi connections in a localized area. The RE315 was able to restore a speedy, lag-free connection to a room that had neither speed nor reliability. Transfer speed went from 11 megabits per second (Mbps) to almost 160 Mbps. That’s the difference between having an iffy time streaming a single 4K video versus it being no big deal to download large files or stream multiple videos simultaneously.

The extender sped up responsiveness. In addition to better transfer speed, the Wi-Fi’s responsiveness (latency) improved from 10,799 milliseconds (ms) to 765 ms. In other words, that’s a shift from an interminable wait while staring at a spinning pinwheel on your to instantly changing channels while watching YouTube TV.

Speed improvement with extender

It improved a spotty connection into a solid, speedy one. And it wasn’t just connection quality that improved: Compared with the router alone, the RE315 improved speed by 1,350% on downloads for the laptop in the dead zone. While that might not make a difference if you’re simply streaming music, it will be noticeable if you’re in a Zoom meeting or trying to get the latest game updates.

You can plug it in. The RE315’s 100 Mbps Ethernet port is convenient. Where possible, it’s a good idea to plug devices like media streamers or game consoles into an extender’s Ethernet port, rather than putting them on Wi-Fi. When you take a bandwidth-hogging device—such as a streaming box or gaming PC—off of the wireless network, you free up more Wi-Fi signal for the other devices in your home.

The RE315 is mesh-compatible with TP-Link routers. If you’re already using a compatible TP-Link router, such as the TP-Link Archer AX Pro, enabling OneMesh on the RE315 improves connectivity even further. Unlike the normal extender mode, which usually rebroadcasts your Wi-Fi network on a second network name, OneMesh integrates the two devices like a mesh-networking system does. All you have to do is enter the common network name (the SSID) on your or device, and your or device will automatically connect to the extender or the router based on whichever connection is more efficient as you roam around your home. Plus, you can manage the settings and firmware updates for both devices using the same interface on the Archer AX Pro.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Although your connection may perform faster and feel more responsive with an extender, using the TP-Link RE315 isn’t a substitute for plugging an Ethernet cable directly into your router, using powerline networking, a MoCA wired bridge, or a mesh Wi-Fi system.

The RE315’s sole Ethernet port is capable of only 100 Mbps. That’s sufficient for a single 4K streaming box, but it may be less than your internet connection can produce overall.

If you plan to hook up more than one PC or multiple devices to the extender, you may be better off with an extender that has multiple Gigabit Ethernet ports, like the Netgear EAX20.

The RE315’s two antennas, which swing up from their parked position, are a bit of an eyesore. But compared with the antenna-less RE230 we tested in a previous version of this guide, in our tests the RE315 antennas helped the extender maintain a solid connection back to the base router.

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If you need extra wired Ethernet ports: The Netgear EAX20 is shaped like a router, and it has four Gigabit Ethernet ports for connecting game consoles and smart TVs. It’s normally priced around $130, so it may be cheaper to buy an RE315, a few Ethernet cables, and a 4-port hub. But the EAX20 is more convenient for multiple connections in the same room, and it’s more compact.

If you absolutely need Wi-Fi 6E: The TP-Link RE815XE has Wi-Fi 6E compatibility and was able to extend a strong Wi-Fi 6E signal to our test laptop in a room that had zero 6 GHz Wi-Fi 6E coverage from the Asus RT-AXE router. You can also connect the RE815XE via Ethernet and extend Wi-Fi 6E in access point mode to a room on the other side of the house, provided you have the wire run between the router and the extender. However, since the price of the extender alone is usually $200, we’d recommend this solution only if you must connect laptops or phones with Wi-Fi 6E. Replacing your router with a Wi-Fi 6 or 6E mesh network from scratch is likely to be cheaper in the long run.

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